Hiroyoshi Nishikawa honored with a prestigious Commendation from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

April 12, 2022
in Japanese

The Commendation for Science and Technology in the research category was conferred to Hiroyoshi Nishikawa by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, on April 8, 2022. The award highlights outstanding contributors to research and development in science and technology, and in promoting its understanding. Dr Nishikawa was recognized for his contribution in research in immunosuppressive mechanisms in human cancer by means of immunogenomic analyses.

Dr Nishikawa is Chief - Division of Cancer Immunology, Research Institute/ Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center (EPOC), National Cancer Center, and also doubly appointed Professor - Department of Immunology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.

Hiroyoshi Nishikawa

Research Achievements

Dr. Nishikawa has studied the mechanisms by which the immunosuppressive network, including CD4+ regulatory T (Treg) cells, suppresses anti-tumor immune responses, and has also been developing therapeutic strategies to overcome these mechanisms. In particular, he found the typical phenotypes of effector T cells, which are important for anti-tumor immune responses, that are suppressed by Treg cells depending on the nature of the antigen (exhaust for non-self and anergy for self-antigens). These findings are extremely important for understanding not only tumor immunity, but also various immune responses such as autoimmunity, allergy, infection and transplantation. In addition, he has recently proposed a novel concept in the carcinogenic process in which genomic aberrations of cancer cells affect the immune response and establish an immunosuppressive network in the tumor microenvironment, and commits to develop immunogenomic precision medicine.

Positions and Employment

1989-1995     Mie University School of Medicine, M.D., Mie, Japan
1995              Junior Resident, Mie University Hospital, Mie, Japan 
1995-1997     Junior Resident, Matsusaka-Chuo General Hospital, Mie, Japan
1997-1998     Senior Resident, Hematology/Oncology Section, Suzuka General Hospital, Mie, Japan
1998-2002     Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Ph.D., Mie, Japan
2002-2003     Fellow, Department of Hematology/Oncology, Mie University Hospital, Mie Japan.
2003-2006     Research fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
2006-2010     Assistant Professor, Department of Cancer Vaccine, Mie University,
                     Graduate School of Medicine, Mie, Japan
2010-2015     Associate Professor, Experimental Immunology, IFReC, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
2012-2015     Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY
2015-present  Chief, Division of Cancer Immunology, Research Institute / EPOC
                     National Cancer Center, Tokyo/Chiba, Japan
2016-present  Professor, Department of Immunology,
                     Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan